What you really want
by Lakritzwolf
Summary: My first attempt at POTC fiction. Set after COTBP without the DMC happening, although I helped meself to a few of the ideas. Contains JackElizabeth, a character death and some weird ideas of mine.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except for my weird ideas.

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Author's note: This was my first attempt at POTC Fiction. I'm not sure it's a brilliant piece of work and I think I haven't got the characters the right justice, but it's not too bad and maybe someone there likes it.

Chapter one:

Happens at the end of The Curse of the Black Pearl. Jack faces the gallows, but Will does not intervene to rescue him. Elizabeth argues with her father for Jack's life and the execution is postponed, but days later Elizabeth learns Jack has been hanged.

Only three years later she discovers a dark secret of her husband, estranged from her by his desire for riches and profit.

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_17. June_

_Today it is three years ago that they hanged Jack Sparrow.  
__I remember, I had half expected Will to intervene, to do something, but he had done nothing as the noose around Jack's neck was pulled tight.  
__It was watching Jack take his last breath that I couldn't watch it any longer, I screamed at them to stop, that Jack had, after all, saved my life, saved me from drowning. _

_It brought a hold to things. My father promised me to reconsider, and Jack was brought back to jail again. I had bought a little time. And what for?  
__Two weeks later I was told they had hanged Jack. Nothing I could have said or done could have changed anything about it. _

_And now, today, it all comes back to me. And with it, the bad and bitter conscience. With Jack dead, Will took over the Black Pearl, and the crew with her. Pirates as well, still they had been offered to either face the gallows or accept ten lashes each and stay onboard the Pearl under her new Captain. And all of them had agreed. _

_So the death of Jack Sparrow has made our life as comfortable as we could wish for. Will has had enorm success as a trader and merchant, and we bath in wealth. I have everything I ever wanted, or want. Dresses, jewels, dinners, feasts, music, horses, dogs. Surely I must be a happy woman?_

_I was. For the first year after our marriage, everything was roses, only slightly overshadowed by Jack's death. And then something changed. Will, my beloved, caring Will, turned into someone else. Since the first year of our marriage, I hardly see him any more. He works and works. Spends hours and hours in his study with his books and ledgers. And if he isn't there, he is at sea._

_Shortly after our first anniversary, he started talking about children. On and on he went. Children, a son to take over his business and the ship when he was old. A son. How on earth could I have given him a son when he was hardly at my side?_

_And when he was, it was nothing to enjoy any more. Our love had become stale and sour, and his gentle and wonderful lovemaking had become something mechanical and lifeless._

_Maybe it was all my fault. I should never have brought up the topic of Jack Sparrow again. But today, I thought, we could remember him as a friend, or so I had thought. And only then a slip escaped Will, and I couldn't believe my ears.  
__He said he had only my best interest in mind when he took over the Black Pearl. He told me I was being ungrateful. Have I been?  
__I only saw the betrayal.  
__I have hardly seen him since our last argument. That was four days ago, he came to sleep in our bed, but only well after I had fallen alseep myself, and he was gone before I awoke. _

_And now, my dear diary, you, the only one I can freely speak my mind with, what am I supposed to do? The slip from Will brought me to the brink of collaps. Jack was never hanged.  
__For the last three years they have let me believe Jack is dead, while all the while he sat smouldering in my father's own dungeon._

_I feel like looking for him, for sheer defiance to my husbands words and orders. But then what will I do? Say sorry we destroyed his life? And why do I feel that way? He is a pirate, has robbed and raped and _(there is a passage crossed out with dark blotches)

_Ach, who am I fooling? I liked Jack, for all he was. He was a friend. And deep down, I think he is a good soul. Why should he have helped Will otherwise? He could have gotten what he wanted without helping him in return. _

„Elizabeth? What are you doing?"  
Hastily Elizabeth closed her diary and put down the quill. „I am writing my diary, Will."

„Useless waste of time." Yet despite his harsh words he was smiling, and almost looked like the Will she had fallen in love with so long ago. „I will be gone for a few days. I have some major negotiations I would rather do myself than let my clerks deal with it. I will be back by the end of the week, and if all goes well, will be able to make a cruise that will triple our wealth. What do you think? Fancy a little tour to England?"  
„England?"  
„All the way there", Will said and took his watch out of his pocket. „Sorry love, I must hurry. See you in a few days."  
And with that, he was gone again, and he hadn't even realised that Elizabeth had been crying. She hadn't realised it herself at first, but as he was gone, she wiped her face and found her cheeks wet.

So he would be gone. Again. She wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and bit her lower lip. A plan began to take shape in her mind, it was a little frightening, but at the same time exiting. And the more she thought about, the more she grew sure that it could hardly go wrong. And even if it did, what had she got to loose? Her life had become such a boring burden that anything was better than this pampered, ignored existence.

Dressed in man's clothing and a dark cloak, she made her way down to the prison keep that night, equipped with a knife and a bag of coins. As it turned out, dressed as a lad it was easy to bribe her way into the prison. Getting into the lower level, however, was not so easy. She had to lie like a fishwife to get through the last door, and had to reveal her gender on top of it.

By telling the guard she was a pregnant girl in disguise trying to catch a last glimpse of her love condemned to death and supporting that story with some coins, she finally managed to have the last door unlocked that led into a doorway that was almost as dark as the night outside.

There were several cells on her right side, most of them empty, and only at the far end of the wall was a torch. She looked into the cells, but none of the blank and desolate faces staring up at her was familiar.

He was not here. She took a deep breath and regretted it the same instant. There was a stench in the air, a human stench, of unwashed body and hair, of sickness and of excrements.

She shook herself, but as she was about to turn, she heard a noise: A faint clinking of chains. Elizabeth took the torch out of the ring and made a hesitating step forward, torch extended before her, to look into the last cell.  
A skeleton of a man hung there in chains, the arms chained to the wall, the feet in shackles. Dark hair was matted around his head and his clothes, or what was left of them, were no more than filthy, stinking rags. He moved in his shackles when Elizabeth brought the torch nearer, and then slowly lifted his head. She gasped and almost dropped the torch. That miserable, starved, stinking creature chained to the wall… was Jack Sparrow.

Elizabeth swallowed a scream, but could not a sound like a sob escaping her lips. Jack blinked and opened his lips. They were so dry they started bleeding instantly. „Go away", he whispered in a cracked voice. „I have no mind to go to heaven, angel. I heard it was rather boring there. I'd rather go to hell, if it's all the same to you."  
„I'm no angel, Jack." She swallowed and tried to remain calm. „It's Elizabeth. Do you remember me?"  
Jack managed a smile and licked the blood from his lips. „Oh, of course. Elizabeth, the fairest maiden on the seven seas. How fares your beloved husband, the honourable William Turner? I am a bit dissapointed, Lizzie. I'd have expected you come to visit sooner."

„I couldn't, Jack." She swallowed again. She couldn't believe that her father and Will really had let this happen. He tilted his head and she shrugged. „I didn't know you where here", she went on. „ I was told you were dead."  
„I might as well be. Now leave me alone."  
"Jack I…" he had closed his eyes and Elizabeth could not surpress a shudder. „I'll be back. I promise."  
He didn't move or answer, and she slowly got up and dusted her knees off. As she turned around, she heard him whisper something. She wasn't sure if she had understood him rightly, but it could have well been a plea to bring him some rum.

„Have you found him, sweetheart?" The guard at the door grinned at her and she nodded.  
„Do you know whom you are keeping here?"  
„Names, you mean?" The fat man leaned back and picked his nose. „Nope. No idea. Down here, everyone's the same."

Elizabeth tried to think quickly, but she couldn't do anything else but be blunt. Her mind refused to work. „Can I come back?", she asked and the guard wiped his hand on his pants and shrugged. „What for?"  
"To bring him some food."  
„Pretty darn dangerous, if you ask me. What's in it for me?"  
„How much do you want?"  
Oh…", he inserted his little finger in his ear and wriggled it. After a couple of seconds, he plugged it out again and inspected it. „A silver each."  
„Done."  
So she went upstairs again and made her way home, thinking hard and fast. She couldn't keep this up forever, that was impossible. She had to think of a way to free him. And soon.

But for now, she had to find a way to dissappear as often as she could to bring him food and nurse a little strength into him again. As worn he was now, it would be absolutely useless to set him free, he would collaps as soon as she unlocked the chains. Which remained a larger problem in itself.

Will was not here, so she would not neccessarily be missed, and so she started to carry out part one of her plan, while all the while thinking about part two.

She came back to the prison the next night, got in as promised for the price of one silver, and was given a cell key.  
"Can't be bothered going up and down the stairs more than neccessary", the guard had said.

Equipped with a basket, a candle and the cell key she made her way down and was worried at first he had died on her the day before when she knelt down before him. But as soon as she took out the small bottle and uncorked it with a ‚plunk', Jack lifted his head.  
„I don't have keys fort he shackles", she whispered and carefully held the bottle to his lips, making Jack drink a little of the finest rum her household had to offer.  
„Oh bliss", he whispered hoarsely. „You are an angel after all, Lizzie."  
"Shut up, be quiet. Here is food, as well."  
Jack stared at her, and suddenly she felt very uncomfortable looking into his dark eyes. „Why?", he said. „Why?"

„It's wrong. They shouldn't have done this to you. It's wrong."  
Elizabeth broke off a piece of bread and held it to his lips, but he didn't take it. She slowly lowered her hand and he sneered at her. „Go away", he said. „The rum was nice. The food will only make me last longer. I've spent enough time here in these chains. No need to prolong it."  
„But I'm trying to get you out!" Would he believe her? Or would he refuse to, thinking there would be another betrayal? She wouldn't have blamed him if he did.  
„Out?" He asked. „You will only get in trouble, sweetheart. Jack Sparow's way as come to an end here.  
„No. I don't care. You will not rot here, if I can do anything about it." She hoped he would believe her, but his eyes still were full of doubt. She lifted her hand again, holding the piece of bread. „Jack, please. You have to be strong. I can maybe get you out, but I can't carry you all the way to Tortuga." He still didn't answer and only stared at her. „Jack, please?"

It must have either been the pleading in her voice or in her eyes, most likely both. In any case, he suddenly sighed and opened his mouth, and Elizabeth propped the piece of bread in. She gave him a little more bread and made him drink some milk before offering him the rum again. A little life had returned into his eyes when she got up and left him after hiding the basket with bread and rum in a corner under a bit of straw.

Before she went, she touched his cheek, just a gentle touch in passing, for the plain human comfort of touch after so long a time in utter despair and loneliness. He gave her a strange look she could not identify, and she found herself staring at her hand for the rest of the night, trying to hold on to the feeling of his living flesh after having believed him forever ripped out of her life.

Several days in a row she went down into the dungeon at night, fed him and watched him grow stronger again. It was time, she knew, for the second phase of her plan. By now, it had taken on a bit more shape, the only problem was getting Jack away once he was out of the dungeon.

Will had come home this morning, but had largely ignored her and had not come to sleep in their bedroom that night, He had a bed in his study and spend as many nights, if not more, there rather than at his wife's side, as not to disturb her sleep while brooding over figures, he said. It had always made her sad and angry, by now it was exactly what she wanted.

She went down to the harbour after she had been in the prison and went on board the Black Pearl to talk to Jack's old crew. She found four men there, the first mate Gibbs among them, and asked them cautiously about their oppinion about Jack Sparrow.

„A Captain as he ought to be", said one slowly.  
„A spirited man", said the next. „A sailor and pirate with heart and soul."  
"With a bastards luck", the third man added and all of them nodded.  
„Was it better to be pirates under Captain Sparrow than free men with Will Turner"? She asked. As of yet, they hadn't seen through her masquerade and thought her a messengerboy.

„Free men." Gibbs out and shook his head. „We're still pirates, to the captain and to anyone else. We're not allowed to leave the ship in groups. Have to be under guard if we do. At least with Jack, we had only the sea against us. Everyone else was enemy or prey. Now that we're „free men", we are the enemy and the prey. Should have gone to the gallows with the Captain." He shrugged and stared past her. „Shame, that. A Captain should go down with his ship. A sailor should be buried in the sea. Nothing like that for old Jack. Shame."

He wiped his eyes and turned around. „Go, lad. This is as cursed a ship as any ghost ship ever cruising the ocean, with the dammned in sail and rigging and the cursed at the rudder. Look elsewhere for a hire."  
She thought about what to say next, for it would decide not only the fate of her plan but the fate of herself and Jack with her if she said something wrong now.  
„What if Jack would still be alive?", she said and the four men stared at her.  
„Say", the first mate said. „Do you know something we don't?"  
"I heard he was hanged", Elizabeth said pointedly and the man nodded. „So did we. But no one I ever spoke to saw him hang."

„So what if Jack would indeed still be alive after three years. Where would he be?" The first mate and his comrades exchanged a glance and then looked at Elizabeth again.  
„You know something, lad. Out with it."  
She nodded and braced herself, then she took off her hat. As the men's eyes widened as they recognised her, she nodded again. „I learned he wasn't dead. I tried to save him, but I can do nothing really helpful. I have to get him out, but alone, I can't. I need help. And then he needs a ship to get him out. A ship where the danger of being discovered and thrown overboard as deadhead was comparatively small."

The first mate nodded again. „I see. So Captain Turner could once again help…"

„Captain Turner", Elizabeth interrupted him, „Would go to any length to avoid this. He didn't do a thing to prevent Jack's hanging, that was my doing. But I was never told he wasn't hanged, like everyone else. It was a slip of Will that told me. My father's doing, that, to do me a favour, and Will never told me. I am not sure my father knows I have never been told it, and I am sure that it was Will's doing that had him chained to the wall like a condemned rather than keeping him in a normal cell. He ist he one we have to steer clear of."

„He's your husband, girl!" Confusion and surprise stood clear on the faces around her and Elizabeth shrugged. „He is. But hat doesn't mean everything he does is right with me. He shouldn't have done that to Jack. He can't do that. And I will not let Jack die. Not after he helped us escape and all. Whatever he did, he saved my life once."  
„Brave lass", one of the sailors said. „But we're running out of time. We'll set sail tomorrow."  
"Tomorrow?" Elizabeth dropped her hat. Will had told her they would set sail for England in four day's time. So he had lied again to her, probably to avoid taking her at all. Bastard!

That was what had become of her beloved Will! A lying bastard. And with that, her decision suddenly stood.  
„Then let's loose no more time. Come with me, and we'll get him out. Silver or what else there is to pay, I'll get it. I get him out, and you get him away and aboard.  
Grim faces nodded with evil grins. Sudenly Elizabeth's world started spinning and crumbling at the edges, but there was no way she could ever live in that house again, living on riches gained by lies and betrayal of friends.

Hastily and as silently as they could, she and the four sailors made their through the city, discussing the details of their plan.

It cost Elizabeth all her silver to bribe her way in, and there was nothing left but her rings and bracelet when she spoke to the guard again. „The key to his shackles?" He raised his eyebrows and scratched his chin. „Can't do that, sweetheart. And what for?"  
Think, girl! Lie for what your life's worth!  
„I…" She swallowed. „I heard he must hang tomorrow. I… I wanted to have one last… chance to… be a little closer to him."  
The guard stared at her, at her blushing face, and suddenly laughed. „What a lucky bastard. But see, sweetheart, I am not inclined, not very much, to give a man something I can't have. Food, alright. Rum, even. But that?"  
„I see." She shuddered, but was there any other way? She couldn't overcome the hulk of a man alone. „Maybe something could be done about that…?"  
„Maybe, sweetheart. Here's the key." He plunged the keys on the table and waggled his eyebrows. „I'll let you have them. If you make it worth my while."

x x x x x x x x

Elizabeth had studied the plans of the building thoroughly during the last days. So she had learned that there was a trapdoor under the stairway at the bottom level that led down into the sewers. From there, it was only a short walk to reach the harbour and it was there where the sailors would be waiting for them.

Half supporting Jack, half dragging him behind her, she tried to get rid of the stench in her nostrils against which even the smell in the sewers was powerless. She asked herself if she could possibly ever forget what she had done and if it was really worth it. But just a single look at Jack assured her that it was indeed. She had to get him free. It was the only thing she could do for him.

They loaded Jack into the boat and rowed in the shadows of the night towards the Black Pearl. Getting him up the rope ladder was a problem, but with one man pushing and another one pulling they managed to get him on deck.  
„Thank you", the first mate said, and the other sailors agreed and slapped Jack on the back, a gesture that made him stumble with exhaustion. "Great to have you back, Captain. We'll get you somewhere safe, and let's see if you don't even get your ship back."

Elizabeth wished them success and hurried back home in the already greying dawn. She made it back into her bedroom with sunrise and dressed hastily, she intented to surprise her husband by being ready to travel against his expectations. She packed a few things and only in the very last moment remembered to squeeze in the bag she had hidden under her bed.

The contents of that bag had cost her a serious amount of bargaining and bribing.

„What are you doing here?", Will asked her completely taken aback as she met him outside at the carriage.  
"What do you think? I am ready and packed. I thought we were going to England?"  
Will blinked a few times and composed himself. „Yes… why, yes, of course we do. Please."  
He helped her into the carriage and they set off towards the harbour. Will spoke not a single word as until they arrived.  
„I hope you have packed enough", he said and then glanced at her bag. „It is a long journey to England."

With that, he helped her out and walked on board without glancing backwards, and a sailor helped Elizabeth on board while carrying her luggage.  
Gibbs winked conspiratively as he passed her by on his way to the rudder.  
They set sail with the rising tide. Mild, yet steady winds carried them out of the harbour and into the open sea. Gentle waves rocked the Black Pearl on her way to the east and dolphins shot through the water beside her bow. All was so very peaceful, and continued to be for two days, until they had reached the open ocean.

It was around mid-day when Elizabeth registered that the ship was making a sharp turning. Will had noticed it, too, and now came running towards the helmsman. „Hey! Why are we turning? We're eastbound!"  
The helmsman ignored him, and suddenly the deck grew very quiet. Every sailor stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to face the helm.  
"There's a nice little island", said Gibbs, turning the wheel. "Looks like the perfect spot for a relaxing few days far away from the main shipping lines."  
"Turn! At once! You will follow my orders! I am the captain of this ship!" It almost sounded hysterical, and Elizabeth saw Will had realised what was happening.

Mutiny.

„You're not the captain. Not any more."  
Will crossed his arms and glowered at the mate. „And who is it? You?"  
„Ah, what makes you think so? He's captain, he who should have been her captain all along!"  
„What…?" Will shook his head to think of a smart reply, but at that moment the door the the deck opened and out stepped Jack Sparrow.  
„How did you get away?" Will screamed in confusion, and if Elizabeth had needed any more to despise him or convice her that it had been indeed his fault that Jack had almost perished in the prison cell, now she had it. She crossed her arms and took a step back.

„I had considerable help", Jack said nonchalantely and took a step forward towards Will. „I still seem to have resourceful friends, and in unlikely places. The same, as it seems, do I have enemies in unlikely places. But to be perfectly honest, that is something I am used to. Be that as it may… I am inclined, though, for the sake of friendship…"  
"I am not a friend of a pirate!" Will hissed and Jack blinked and gently rocked sideways a few times. „Dear me. Then fort he sake of a relationship between professionals. Anyway, I am inclined to let you live. And if only fort he sake of your charming and delightful lady here. Me blowing out your brain through your ears with a bullet is nothing a lady should witness."  
„You impertinent bastard…"

„Whooo…" Jack spread his hands and wiggled his fingers. „Your choice. Claim that beautiful little island as your own… or die." The last two words had been spoken in a considerably darker voice, and Jack's face was suddenly set very grim. Elizabeth could see that in his eyes hate and rage were smouldering, barely banked. She guessed it was only because of her that he didn't just go and strangle Will on the spot.

„Let us go", Will then said as he glanced at her. „I will go and not pursue you. Just let us go and give us a little food and water to make it until a ship comes."  
„Oh, but you are mistaken if you think I would let your lady share such a cruel fate. I will bring her to a save harbour."  
„You…" Will began but Jack lifted his finger. „Ah-ah… no swearing in front of ladies, my friend. This is my last offer. You go, and I will let her go in the next harbour." Then Jack's friendly smile died and he bared his teeth for a second before continuing in a low growl. „That, or you both die on the spot, here and now. Your choice."

Will exchanged a panicked glance with Elizabeth and then shrugged in desperation. „Doesn't look like if I have much choice."  
"Wise man", Jack said, again grinning jovially, and patted Will's back. „Let me assure you, your lady is in best hands with me. I will not harm a hair on her head." He turned and flashed Elizabeth a grin. „Or elsewhere on her body. Savvy?" He winked and turned again to give some orders to his men, and Elizabeth tried to swallow her heart that had suddenly jumped into her throat. Would he be true to his word?

Or would he take his chance with her when Will was gone? Once, she would have been sure he wouldn't, but the prison seemed to have brought a darker side out in Jack Sparrow, and she didn't blame him. He still was not fully recovered, and if he ever would was anyone's guess. He still was incredibly thin and his wrists were swollen and stiff after being chafed and trappped between the shackles for three years. His ankles didn't look any better, they were still so swollen that he did not wear any shoes or boots.

She had caught a glimpse at his back when the sailors had manhandled Jack into the boat and rather hoped she was wrong, but it had looked as if he had repeatedly been flogged, as well.

„Elizabeth!" She flinched at the sound of Will's voice breaking the spell of her thought. „Elizabeth! Don't despair! I will find a way and save you! I swear! I will save you!"  
That was the last he heard of him, and the last she saw, as well. He was pushed in the boat and rowed ashore.  
„Afraid?", a dark voice whispered next to her ear and she flinched again and turned to look into Jack Sparrow's grinning face.  
„Oh, I do apopogize. Far it was from me to startle you. Should you wish to retire", he made a complicated gesture with his hands and then indicated at last towards the door of the captain's cabin, „Then please, be my guest. The cabin shall be yours, and I will humbly sleep with my men. That is, I will sleep where they sleep. In a cot. Alone."

Despite her sudden fear, Elizabeth had to swallow a grin. „No need. I just stay in the cabin I am in now. The guest cabin. The captain should stay in the captain's cabin."  
Jack blinked a few times and bowed with a flourish. „And again I find myself at the recieving end of your grace and generosity, my lady." Elizabeth grinned and he went on.

„But, I hope you are aware that I did do something in return. I spared your beloved husband although I should have killed him. I would, believe me, not have separated you had I not felt the desperate need to assure my free passage with, as sorry as I am to say that, your lovely persion as a pledge, a pawn, a security. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. Your beloved husband…"

„He is not my beloved husband", Elizabeth said in a low voice, clapping her hand over her mouth the same moment and Jack leaned back and blinked again, this time in puzzlement.  
„I am furious with him", she went on, feeling the need to explain this blunder she had not really meant to say. „He was the one who got you into that prison cell."  
„Oh, I know", Jack said and shrugged. „But I don't bear grudges. For long."  
„I do", she said and took a step back. What on earth in his presence made her say things she didn't want? She took another step back and turned. Only when she had the cabin door closed behind her felt she safe again.

Jack Sparrow still stared at the door long after she had closed it. „Do you now", he whispered.

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Author's note: What happened to Will here is nothing I made up. It happened to a friend of mine who, after I hadn't seen him for a year, had got a new job and had turned into a ruthless, heartless bastard. Lovely lad he was. Before that. Maybe this is how I compensate. It's hard to lose a friend like that.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except for my weird ideas.

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Chapter two:

There's something in the air, yet Elizabeth can not deny any longer that there was maybe more to her rescuing Jack Sparrow than owing him the debt of a life.

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A ship is a confined, cramped space, and not really a place where you can keep out of each other's way for long. Although Elizabeth tried to keep out of Jack's way, their path's had to cross now and then, and finally, she had to summon the courage to face him again, to give him the last gift she still had for him. She took the bag from her luggage one evening and went to the captain's cabin.

„Yes!" She heard Jack's voice answer when she knocked and carefully stepped in.  
"Ah, Lovely Miss Swan. Oh Pardon me, Mrs Turner. Please do forgive me, but I am sure you will understand why I don't stand up to greet you", Jack beamed happily at her from the bathtub in which he was sitting. Elizabeth found herself blushing furiously despite herself.

„What can I do for you, Lizzie?" Jack asked and she put he bag onto the table.  
"I have brought you something", she said and Jack raised his eyebrows. „I am shamed by your generosity", he said. „What is it?"

„A gift", Elizabeth said and tried to put on a smile. It must have looked rather nervous, by the way Jack raised his brows. He did not comment her nervousness, though.  
„Ah, what a fortunate man I am. And even more fortunate that you came this precise moment. You could maybe help me out of a nasty little situation?"

„Yes?" Elizabeth asked cautiously and he grinned a little sheepishly. „I've dropped the soap as I wanted to wash my hair. It would avoid a great mess if you could pick it up…" He pointed into a corner of the cabin and Elizabeth went into a crouch with a smile, picking up the soap. As she went back to the tub with Jack in, she suddenly realised what had struck her as odd.

„Why do you bath? I thought there was never even enough water to drink, not to speak of washing on a ship."  
„Ah, that is well true. But alas, I wanted to get rid of the stench of the prison. I am sure you understand that."  
„Never heard of a pirate using soap, bu fair enough", Elizabeth said and gave in to a sudden impulse. She stepped behind him and started to lather his hair with soap. It had almost grown back to it's original length, she had been told by a guard with a feisty snigger that prisoners were shorn completely as part of hygiene, but to her it seemed more a measure of humilation more than anything else. There was no hygiene whatsoever any more once the prisoner was locked up.

Jack let his head fall back with a purr of content and closed his eyes. Smiling, Elizabeth massaged his hair and skalp with her fingers and watched his face. It was still gaunt, the skin stretching tightly over his cheekbones. But obviously, he had not lost his humour, although it seemed his humour had got a somewhat edgy coldness to it. His eyes certainly had.  
She took the can standing next to the tub and told him to put his head forward, then rinsed his hair with the water.

„It will make you happy to hear", Jack said when he straightened up again and wiped water out of his eyes, „that we will reach a harbour tomorrow around mid-day. I am thinking of letting you go. We are far away enough now. And pursued I would be in any case. I am a notorious pirate, after all. Still, should I say, Thanks to you."  
„Well…", Elizabeth said, feeling fluttered as his eyes rested on her and felt at the same time suddenly afraid and worried again. She would sit there then, sending news to her father, and would be waiting to be rescued. And after that, it would be back to like it was before.  
„You don't sound very happy", Jack remarked and as she turned, she saw he was staring at her with piercing eyes. She shrugged. „The sweetest apple ist he soonest rotten", she said and was out of the door as fast as she could before she could do something stupid. Or maybe she had just imagined Jack's look being suggestive and inviting.

x x x x x x x x

„Land ho!" The call awoke the ship with the rising sun, and true to Jack's word, they reached the harbour shortly after that.  
"This is where we part", Jack said as he escorted her down the gangway. „I wish you all the best, my fair lady Elizabeth."  
„Thank you", Elizabeth said, feeling rather bleak as she watched him saunter up the plank again. With a shrug, she surrendered to her fate and made her way to an inn that looked expensive enough to house a governour's daughter. But even as she stood in front of the door, she felt such a revulsion and such an urge to flee that she couldn't enter the door. Instead, she fled into a side alley and looked for a sheltered spot.

Jack Sparrow stood on deck of the Black Pearl, leaning on the railing and watched her dissappear. Two feelings inside him told him two different things: The one was that he would see Elizabeth sooner that he could imagine right now, and the other was that he was looking very much forward to it.

That idiot Turner. Had won such a lovely woman, such a spirited creature, and what had he done? Made her unhappy. Neglected her. Stupid idiot. He should go back and shoot him after all. But maybe that would upset Elizabeth even if she did not love him any more.  
For that this was the case he had no more doubts about. And maybe he had let go of the only chance he had been offered, to get what he had desired for so long now. With a sigh he shrugged, a movement that made his back still ache, and turned around to retire to his cabin.

He hated to admit this, but he still was not recovered. Every part of his body hurt, and he didn't sleep well at nights. And now the only thing that had made him smile during the last few days was gone.  
„We set sail with the evening tide", he said in passing to Gibbs and was relieved when he could finally close the door behind him. For here he could just let his feelings show and not keep up a straight face.

Right now, he couldn't say what hurt more: His back, his wrists, or his soul.

x x x x x x x x

Jack slept through the leaving of the harbour, but he awoke form a loud commotion outside. He braced himself and went outside to see what was wrong.  
„What is that?" he asked, and two sailors stepped forward, dragging a yound man, hardly more than a boy, between them. „Deadhead, captain. Hid in the longboat!"  
„I see. Look at me, boy."  
The boy hesitatingly lifted his head and Jack stared, then he threw his head back and laughed. „Oh my goodness me", he gasped. „Let her go men, let her go! At once!"  
„Her…?" The first mate asked and Jack grinned.  
„Elizabeth, I am charmed. What possesed you to sneak your way onto my ship again?"  
Still kneeling she clutched her hat in her hands and shrugged. „I don't want to go back."

„My dear child", Jack said and shook his head. „Surely you don't think you can turn into a pirate!" he chuckled and waved at her to get up. Uncomfortably Elizabeth did so and stared at her feet. She really didn't know what she had been thinking.  
„Should we turn and head for land?", a sailor asked but Jack shook his head. „Wrong tide. I will decide what to do with this deadhead here. Come with me, my lady."  
He bowed again with a flourish and beckoned her to follow him. She did so, feeling terribly exposed as the men stared at her bum and legs, not hidden under a set of skirts.  
She felt her breath escape her lips in a huff when Jack closed the cabin door behind her.

Wordlessly he offered her a bottle and she smelled rum but took a generous swig. Then she slumped on a chair, waiting for him to speak.

"What am I supposed to do now, Lizzie?", he asked. „I can't obviously bring you back now, but I can not really keep you here. What did you think?"  
Elizabeth shrugged. „Nothing much. Only that I did not want to go back."  
„But there is nothing else", Jack said. „You are a fine lady. You should not get stranded in some armpit of a town."  
She shrugged again. „Nothing will make me go back to him."  
„Elizabeth…" Jack slowly sat down opposite of her and took a swig of rum himself. „I remember seeing you two as happy as two fishes in the sea. What can have happened that you suddenly despise the man so?"

Slowly Elizabeth lifted her head and looked into Jack's dark eyes. „He wanted riches. He wanted style." She shrugged and took the bottle from Jack's hands and took a generous mouthful. „He said it was all for me. But I wanted him, not money or riches or style. But he got obsessed with his business, with making money, and somewhen something happened to him. I don't know what. Well, to be honest, it happened to us."

Jack didn't say anything, but looked at her, his chin resting on folded hands. Elizabeth shrugged again. „He grew cold and uninterested, yet at the same time started talking about sons, and it was the only thing he would talk about with me. Yet how could I give him sons if…" She broke of and reached for the bottle and Jack let go of it.  
„If he wouldn't stay more than a few hours every few nights?", she finished after a swig of rum. „Maybe he would have been fond of me again if I had given him…"  
Jack interrupted her with a move of his finger. „Don't look for the fault with you", he said. „You're not mother Mary, you need a man for that. Why don't you just blame him instead?"  
She shrugged. „I don't have much choice. As you mentioned earlier, I am a fine lady, and I can't do anything for my living. And I can't likely turn into a pirate." She sighed and took another sip. „Allright, it was pretty stupid to come here. I should have stayed."

„Well now that you are here", Jack said and took the bottle, „You might as well see soemthing of the world. „I have no plans to steer into any harbour in the near future. I am afraid you are stuck here with me and my stinking lot of monkeybums."  
That made Elizabeth smile a little and she took the bottle again. Their fingers touched and she flinshed back as if she had burned herself, but Jack only tilted his head with a strange, lopsided smile. To cover her embarrassment, Elizabeth took a rather large swig out of the bottle and leaned back.

„Have you unpacked your gift yet?", she asked and Jack shook his head.  
"No, I haven'thad the time yet. Why don't I do it now?" He got up and picked up the bag that he had put into a corner of the cabin. He placed it onto the table and undid the knot of the string that held it shut.

As he unfoldd the cloth, his eyes grew wider and wider until finally, he had to sit down as he stared at the neat little pile of things that Elizabeth had wrapped in the oiled cloth.

Clothes and a pair of boots. A red piece of cloth formed a bundle with a heap of smaller things in, and as he unwrapped that, he found all the little trinkets and beads, even his rings were still there. He blinked a few times as he picked up the hat from the top of the pile.  
„How very… considerate of you, my dear", he managed to say after a while. „I must admit I had no hopes of seeing my effects ever again. Where did you get them, or better, how?"  
Already Elizabeth could feel the effect of the rum, but she was not sure if it was the alcohol or Jack's smile that made her feel a little fuzzy.

„I bribed them out of the prison officer of duty. Will you be needing help with these?" she asked to cover that strange feeling and pointed at the beads. He followed her finger and nodded. „I would be delighted", he said. „If you don't mind."  
„I don't", she said and got up. And so, with Jack's instructions, she braided a strand of his hair here and there, and fiddled with beads and other things untill Jack, watching himself in the mirror, was satisfied with the effect.

„One thing is missing", she said.  
„But it is replacable", Jack replied with a tilted head. „And well, to be honest, I am surprised anything has survived the last three years." He turned his hed this way and that with a grin, admiring his reflection.  
Elizabeth tried to calm her heart that was fluttering a little and beating far too fast as she reached into her shirt. „Is it that?", she asked and pulled a string over her head. Attached to it was a needle made of polished whalebone as long as her hand. Jack recognised the thing in the mirror and slowly turned his head and got up.

„I must admit this ist he last place I had expected it", he said in a low voice

Elizabeth shrugged and licked her lips nervously. „I… I got into the posession of these things after you… After I heard you had been executed. I bribed them out of the prison. And I… I wanted something to remember you by."  
Slowly Jack tilted his head. „Remember me by?"  
Elizabeth nodded. „You were dead. That's what I had been told. And you were… had been… a friend and…"  
„A friend", Jack said in a dark voice and made a step towards her. He was so close he could see his pulse throbbing in his jugular vein. And it was going fast, she realised. As fast as her own. She nodded hastily. „A friend. At least, for me. I can't be sure about Will anymore."  
Jack nodded thoughtfully to this. „A friend. I see. Tell me, Lizzie: Why did you marry William Turner?"  
Elizabeth wrinkled her brow. „Because I loved him?"

„Did you?" Jack leaned a little closer and suddenly, Elizabeth found herself captured in his dark eyes. Did she? Or was it that… maybe…  
„Or was it that you only thought you did?", Jack spoke her thoughts. „Because the man you really wanted was someone you… could not… or would not… admit to yourself?"  
Was it? Elizabeth's world was slowly spinning, yet she could not look away from those eyes. Something deep inside hurt a little as she thought about it. Maybe he was even right. Maybe William had only been a… a decoy. A delusion. She felt her vision blurr and blinked.  
„Well, he must be a fair idiot and as ugly as the devils's grandma, that poor bastard."  
She looked up and he winked at her. „Or maybe not? Maybe it was a strapping young man with charisma and style? But an outlaw? A highwayman? Or maybe…"  
„A pirate?", Elizabeth finished the sentence for him and he feinted surprise. „A pirate? A notorious robber and rapist? The bane of the seven seas? A pirate?"

He turned and walked a few steps and turned again. He walked back and leaned forward with a capturing smile. „Elizabeth." He touched her cheek with a finger and looked at the tear. „Did you cry when I died?" She blinked and nodded, and more tears flowed.  
He slowly nodded. „I cried when I saw you kiss and go with William Turner. But I only cried inside, for a man, and a pirate, has no tears."  
„I'm sorry", she whispered and Jack pursed his lips. „No no no no… dearest Elizabeth. Do not be sorry."  
He turned again and walked to the door. He weighed his head a few times, then he shoved the bar across and turned around again. „I don't think I want to be disturbed right now", he muttered.

„You are free to go, of course", Jack said as he sat down on the bed. „The bar is on the inside, after all." He then unceremoniously pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it. Slowly and hesitatingly, Elizabeth made her way to the door, but halted before her fingers reached the bar. Jack had gotten up again and was watching her.  
„Do you mean I am free to go if I want, or do you want me to go?" She turned to look at Jack, but he had turned his back to her and was absentmindedly fiddling with the hat.  
Elizabeth had not been prepared for that sight. „Oh god, Jack…" She covered her lips in horror as she stared at his back. Jack looked back over her shoulder with raised eyebrows.  
„Yes?"  
„Your back…"  
„Oh that…" He squinted down over his shoulder and then shrugged. „Long healed. I have not been flogged after the first couple of months." He turned and watched her, his arms crossed, but he let his arms slowly sink down when she made a step towards him.

Jack reached out to touch her cheek, but then suddenly her body screamed at her two very conflicting, contrary messages. She flinched under his touch, and although she would have leaned against him, she couldn't and felt her body grow stiff as a pole.  
„Lizzie?"  
She threw her arms around her. „Nothing. Don't call me that."  
Jack leaned a little forward and looked at her, a long, considering look. Then he leaned back again and crossed his arms „How did you get the keys to get me out?"  
Elizabeth swallowed and tried to smile. „Bribery."

Jack lifted one eyebrow.  
„Allright. I told the guard you were my… lover…" She swallowed again as Jack raised the other eyebrow and went on hastily.  
„The guard would let me give you food and rum, but not anything he couldn't have. I told him I would like to unchain you to…" She blushed furiously and tried to calm her racing heart. When she looked up at Jack again, his face was locked in a mask of stone.  
"Elizabeth. Why on earth did you do that to set me free?"

„You saved my life once", was all she could answer. Any other words seemed to elude her. She could only shake her head, and after a while Jack sighed and went to the door and put his hand on the bar. „You are free to go", he said again, and Elizabeth made a few slow steps until she reached the door. Then she looked up at Jack.  
„I can't turn into a pirate", she whispered and laid a hand on his chest. He put his over hers and watched her face. She tried a smile and swallowed. „But couldn't I turn into a pirate's bride?" She laid her other hand on his cheek and he leaned a little bit forward until their noses almost touched. „A pirate's bride?" Jack asked in a whisper and she smiled.  
"I don't really want to go. I would rather leave the bar where it is and stay."

Jack swallowed visibly. „You know… bad memories can be…replaced. Sometimes. And besides…", he whispered and Elizabeth closed her eyes as his face came a little closer. „…besides, you can buy riches, but you can not buy style."

She could feel his breath on her cheek. „Elizabeth", he whispered. She could feel him tremble under her hand on his chest.

„Jack", she whispered and put both her arms around his body. He stopped restraining himself and kissed her. Hesitatingly at first, then with more passion, and felt her rub closer to him as he let his hands wander up and down her back.

Due to the confined space of the cabin he had to take only one step to touch the bed with his legs, and she followed willingly the tug of his arms and they laid down together. The moon and her reclections on the waves of the ocean filled the cabin with flickering, shimmering, silver light.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except for my weird ideas.

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Chapter three:

In which several bullets do harm and good at the same time.  
WARNING: Character death.

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Days followed in a state of happiness Elizabeth had never thought possible before.

For all that he seemed slightly mad, addled, and sometimes was indeed more than a little drunk and could be as annoying as a flock of deranged magpies, Jack was a man who knew how to treat a woman's body. When she turned into his arms he replied to that with a passion that surprised her every time anew.

And he made her laugh. Just with his sheer being, being Jack Sparrow, no, Captain Jack Sparrow, he made her smile, and when he wanted or felt the need to cheer her up, he went to some length to make her laugh and never stopped until she finally did.

He told her impossible stories of monsters and fights where he, of course, always was the strapping heroe, showed her tricks with cards and dice and how to throw a knife.

The crew of the Black Pearl had come to accept a woman aboard not just as a passenger, but it had taken them a while. Only the fact that they knew her and were aware of the fact they owed their newly won freedom and their captain to her made it possible, Elizabeth was sure of it. Women were regarded as harbringers of bad luck, but with her, the crew seemed to make an exception.

A week or so after that first night with Jack, Elizabeth stood at the bow and watched the waves and dolphins, contemplating her future. At the moment she was quite content, but she had to constantly make sure she was in no one's way, and she had the feeling that sooner or later, she would have to go ashore somewhere to wait for Jack to come home to her every now and then. She didn't relish that kind of thought.

„You look unhappy, my little seagull." Holding on to a rope, Jack swung himself forward and sat down on the railing in front of her, one foot dangling down, the other propped up beside him.  
„Do I?" She tried not to look down the sheer drop of almost ten meters gaping behind Jack's periliously balanced back. Wave upon wave hit the bow and sprayed both of them in a fine shower of salt and water.  
„I was thinking about the future", Elizabeth said. „I don't know, but I have the feeling I can not stay on board here for ever."  
„Why is that so?" Jack shifted his weight and let go of the rope.  
„Because I am quite useless on board of a ship. An uneccessary eater and drinker of precious water. I can't sail, or even help. And thanks to my upbringing, I can't even help with the cooking."

She then looked up at Jack and tried to see through his mask of mild interest. She was never sure what exactly he was thinking. „And besides, I think the crew is jealous."  
He lifted his eyebrows. „Jealous?"  
"I think it's obvious. You have a woman for yourself. No one else has."  
„Well." Jack took off his hat and inspected it, then firmly put it back on again. „I think this could be one of the privileges of being the captain of this proud vessel. But if you want, I am sure we can teach you how to be a sailor."  
„Maybe. But will it not lead to discontent sooner or later?"

Jack shrugged and leaned back to stare up into the rigging. One slightly larger wave hitting the bow would have him tumbling into the sea below. Elizabeth tried not to look.  
„The men like you", he said in a thoughtful tone. „And they respect you. They know very well whom they owe this to. Their freedom, and their captain." He winked at her.  
When Elizabeth failed to find a suitable answer and instead stared down into the bow wave, Jack slid down the railing and stood behind her. „You are not having second thoughts, are you?", he asked and leaned forward to look at her face from the side. She turned her head. „About what?"  
He shrugged. „About staying here. Coming back. Not leaving my cabin that night. Leaving your… leaving Will."  
Elizabeth bit her lower lip and shook her head. „No. No second thoughts."

He beamed at her, grinning like a child, and she had to smile. „Oh that lightens my heart, little seagull." He put his arms around her and she leaned against him, laying her hands on his.  
„Can I ask you something, my little seagull?"  
She turned and looked at him, but he wasn't looking at her anymore but at the distant horizon.  
"What is it, Jack?"  
„Do you know what happened to my compass?"  
„Will has it."  
He blinked slowly and looked at her again. „Has he. I feared as much."  
"Do you think he is still alive?"  
„Why shouldn't he be? There's food and water, but then, he also has the bullet."

„Bullet?" She turned and faced him and he turned his head to look at her.  
"A man, marooned on a island, gets a pistol with a single shot."  
Suddenly Elizabeth remembered. Jack had carried one of those around with him for years to give the last bullet that had been intended for him to the man who had given it to him.  
„I see", she said with a strange feeling of sorrow. Jack sensed this and put a finger under her chin. „Would you prefer him to live?"  
Elizabeth shrugged and avoided Jack's eyes. „I don't know."  
„We could look for him, if it made you feel better."  
„And look for your compass?"  
„That as well, that as well", he replied with a lopsided grin. Then he patted her cheek and was off to yell orders across the deck. The ship leaned into the wind, with the rigging creaking like an old woman complaining about her joints on a wet winter's day.

When Elizabeth turned to look across the ship, she saw Jack taking over the rudder from the helmsman. As she watched him there, proud and straight and glowing with self confidence, wheel in hand, she felt short of breath from the sheer sight of him.  
How could she ever have thought of loving someone else? Had he not captured her heart instantly at first sight? True, he also had annoyed the hell out of her…  
Why had she ever thought it had passed? And how had Will taken the place in her heart that all the while should have belonged to someone else?

She would probably never have an answer to that, but her wrong descicion would now haunt her for the rest of her life. As long as he lived, Will would never let the matter rest and try to get his woman back. He was not, not any more, a man to accept defeat.  
And she herself? Adulteress. That word she had all the time tried to lock away in her mind, but what else was she? She had married Will, and now she had gone with another man.  
That he was the man she truly loved, and had loved all the time, was of no consequence. If Will ever would get his hands on her again, she would face consequences she dared not think of.  
As she mentioned these fears to Jack that night, he just waved her worries aside with one of his smirking smiles and had said they just had to make sure he wouldn't get his hands on her again. And that was that.

The island had come in sight a couple of days later. Unquestioned, Jack had helped Elizabeth into the boat and they had rowed ashore, with them Gibbs and three more of the crew.  
As they reached the shore and saw the man standing there waving his hat, it was clear that Will had not recognised the ship.

Accordingly, his expression grew into horrified surprise when he recognised Jack as he was just climbing out of the boat. He stood still as a stone, staring at Elizabeth being helped out of the boat by Jack, and solwly crossed his arms as they came nearer.  
„So we meet again, Jack. I'm sorry to tell you I still haven't used that bullet."  
„A shame, really", Jack replied with an likeswise expressionless face. „It would have saved me the trouble of knocking you over to get my compass back."  
„Take it", Will said. „Over my cold body. Kill me and let Elizabeth watch it, so she may see your true nature. Murderer, robber and rapist."  
„Tsk, tsk. Don't you think she is perfectly aware of my rogueish nature?"  
„I am sure she is. Why have you not let her go?"

And this was what Elizabeth had dreaded all along. She asked herself why she had insisted on coming here at all, why she had to go with Jack to see Will in the first place. She had known this would happen, but maybe she had, unconsciously, felt the need for it. She took a breath.  
„He has. I choose not to go."  
Will's face went white, then he looked back at Jack who just raised his eyebrows. „You…", he growled, his voice hoarse with fury. „Not enough that you plan to ruin me, you steal my wife as well? What did you do to her?"

Jack pursed his lips. „Nothing you haven't done to her first. And I assure you: There is a lot of neglect to answer for."  
„Why you dirty piece of…"  
„No swearing…" Jack broke off in midsentence. Will had pulled out the pistol with the speed of a striking snake and was pointing it at Jack's forehead. „I will kill you", he said. „No matter what happens then, I will have send you to hell."  
No one moved for a second, and the only sound was the faint click of the weapon being cocked.  
"No", Elizabeth said. „Will, no, please…"

Whitefaced and wide-eyed with fury, Will swung the weapon around. Elizabeth hadn't even time to be terrified, not even to be surprised. It all happened far too fast. It was Jack who reacted, he spun on his heel around her the same moment Will fired the pistol.  
Her brain still couldn't keep up, but as Jack slowly crumbled into the sand before her, she realized what had happened. Will had tried to kill her. The bullet had been meant for her.  
But she was not dead, thanks to Jack who now lay at her feet, a bullet in his back.  
„No…" she whispered, petrified with horror. „No…"

„Elizabeth…" Will's voice was suddenly gentle. „Elizabeth, I am sorry, but I had to kill him. Please, what ever he did to you, he is dead now. Please…"  
He was brought short when Elizabeth looked up at him. The moment he saw her face he realised what he had refused to see before and dropped the weapon. Slowly Elizabeth sank onto her knees beside Jack's lifeless form. Feeling strangely detached from her body, she took one of Jack's pistols from it's holster and looked at it. Around her, no one moved, and she cocked the weapon and slowly turned to face Will.

„You wanted to kill me."

„Elizabeth…"

„You killed him."

„Elizabeth, I…"

Then she pointed the weapon at him and fired. He just had time to look at her in hurt shock and surprise before he fell over, blood spreading like a blossoming flower on his chest.  
Elizabeth dropped the weapon with a sob and slowly got up.  
Walking over to Will's corpse on unsteady legs, she felt as if the maws of hell had opened up under her to swallow her once and for all. But all other feelings eluded her. There was no pain, no sorrow, only a cold, bitter numbness as she knelt down and rummaged through Will's pockets until she found what she had been looking for.

Clutching it to her chest, she walked back to where the others were still standing, no one had moved and seemed as petrified as she felt. Slowly she knelt down beside Jack again, and only then the tears did come.  
She took his lifeless left hand, put he compass in it and closed his fingers around it, holding them closed with hers. „You should have this back", she said. „I don't need it any more to show me what I really want."

Still holding his hand with her left one, she reached out with her other hand and picked up the pistol again. She cocked it again and entwined her fingers with Jack's as she brought the muzzle to her temple. Gibbs realised what was happening and made a hasty step forward, realising what she was up to, but it was a sound that brought her short. No one was near enough to have been able to prevent it.

„Thank you…"

Elizabeth swallowed and slowly looked down at Jack, as did Gibbs and the other three. A trickle of blood had ran out of the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were cloudy and glassy as he looked at Elizabeth. „Don't do anything stupid, Lizzie."

„Jack", she whispered, feeling close to fainting. That maelstorm of feelings of the last minutes was taking it's toll on her. Jack, obviously in a lot of pain, nontheless tried to smile at her. „Yep, that is my name", he managed to say, and for some reason, this was what made Elizabeth finally collapse. She slumped over Jack's body, burying her face in his chest and held on to his shirt with both her hands, unable to hold back her tears any more that escaped her in loud, desperate sobs.

Slowly and with great pain, Jack lifted his hand and rested it on Elizabeth's hair. „Believe me, I feel like crying, too", he whispered. „Only it seems not worth the effort."

x x x x x x x x

They brought Jack aboard, and on his insisting, went back to bury William Turner. Gibbs stayed with him to have a look at the wound.  
„Now will you have a look at that", he exclaimed as he examined Jack's upper body and waved Elizabeth over.  
„See that? There's where the bullet went in, so it should have gone right through, lung and heart and all, but there's no hole on your front, Jack. What are you made of, cast iron?"

Jack tried a grin, but it was a pained grimace. Sitting upright hurt like hell, still he looked down at him to convince himself that there was indeed no hole in his chest. Yet there was something puzzling, but in his muddled mind it took him some time.  
„Gibbs…"  
"Aye?"  
„Since when has a man three nipples?"  
„Since... what?"  
Blinking in surprise, the burly seaman leaned forward to inspect Jack's chest and indeed, even from where she was standing, Elizabeth could see that he had indeed three nipples. One on the right side, and two on the left, directly next to each other.

„My goodness me", Gibbs breathed. „Look at that. Must have hit a rib and, instead of cracking through it, the bullet was diverted and slid along the bone right around your ribcage, under your skin. Amazing bones you've got, Jack Sparrow."  
„Yes, right, fascinating and all, now do something about it!"  
„Aye, aye. These things must not be rushed. Come here, lass."

Swallowing, Elizabeth came to the bed and gritted her teeth. Gibbs gave her an encouraging nod while holding Jack's body upright. „There's the knife in the coal pan, nice and hot. Just a little nick, and you can squeeze the little bugger out like a pusboil. Hardly hurts."  
Jack grunted, and Elizabeth took the knife with a slight feeling of horror. Yet when she tried to do what she was told, she found she couldn't. Hesitatingly, she held the knife before her, the point of the blade vibrating in her trembling hand.

„What are you waiting for", Jack growled, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. „Get it over with!"  
Bracing herself and taking a deep breath, Elizabeth gritted her teeth and did what she had to, cutting Jack's flesh open in a swift move with the blade. A grunt of effort as not to cry out escaped his lips and more sweat formed on his forehead, but otherwise, Jack didn't move.

Taking another breath, Elizabeth then pushed against the ball with her forefinger and it slid out and fell into her other hand, slightly deformed, still warm from his body and slick from his blood. She surpressed a shudder as she dropped the ball onto a piece of rag on the table.

Jack had his eyes closed and was breathing heavily in long, drawn out breaths, and only slowly calmed down after this endevour. Gibbs took the botle of rum from beside the bed and held it to Jack's lips, making him drink a healthy gulp. As Elizabeth was wiping her hands on a rag, she saw that Jack's face had become a grimace of determination, and the same moment Gibbs poured a generous amount of the strong alcohol directly into the open wound at his back.

A second, or two, was Jack able to hold onto himself, then he threw back his head and screamed like a banshee. It froze the marrow of Elizabeth's bones to hear him scream like that, but after a few seconds the scream ebbed off into a hoarse sob and ended in a few rasping, heavy breaths before he sighed and his head suddenly fell to one side.  
„Ah, damnit", Gibbs said. „'Tis never pleasant, such a thing, and he wasn't probably fully recovered, as it was. Well, at least we won't hurt him any more now."  
Saying that, he washed the wound on Jack's chest with the rum as well, then he and Elizabeth wound a bandage around his body before laying him down again.  
„Stay up with him, lass", Gibbs told Elizabeth. „When he wakes up, the first thing he'll do is puke, the second thing is want more rum. Be a little nice to him, lass. He's had a hard day."

With that, he left, and Elizabeth, feeling shaky and not a little sick herself, sat down on Jack's bed to guard him.  
„Gibbs?" she asked before he closed the door and he stopped and stuck his head back through the door again. „What is it?"  
Elizabeth bit her lip and tried to figure out how to put it.  
„Jack has… started to call me… seagull. But so affectionately. But why seagull? It's a bird that feeds on waste and corpses and makes a hell of a noise and a hell of a mess…"  
Gibb chuckled and came back in again, giving first the unsoncsious Jack, then her a long look.  
„Ye're no sailor, lass. You talk about them birds like a landlubber does."  
„So?"  
The old seaman grinned. „Ever been lost at sea? Ran out of water, faced with death?"  
„No." She looked down at Jack's face and then back up again at Gibbs.  
„Well, then ye wouldn't know what a seagull means then. Hear the cry, see that bird, and ye know ye'll live. Land, Miss. To a sailor, a seagull is a thing of good luck. Of safety. Of salvation." Without another word, Gibbs left her then and as he closed the door, Elizabeth slowly looked back at Jack again.

Good luck? Maybe, but salvation? Safety? She?

She watched him, his face, so gaunt and so pale, but still alive. And a near miss it had been.  
A fingersnip, a blink of fate, and Jack Sparrow would have been history.  
He had escaped, today. He had before, countless times. And he would, again and again, but someday, sometimes, would come the day when he wouldn't be fast enough, strong enough, and run out of luck. And then Jack Sparrow would be history.

And what was there anyone could do about it? Nothing. There was no cheating of fate. The only thing they could do was accept fate, take each day as it came and not worry too much. Live the good times, and be grateful for them.  
She climbed into the bed and bedded Jack's head into her lap, gently stroking his cheeks and the lines of his eyebrows. A sigh escaped Jack's lips and he laborously opened his eyes. „I hurt", he said in a very small voice, then he threw up into Elizabeth's lap.

„Oh god, I'm sorry", he mumbled, but Elizabeth brushed a few hairs out of his eyes and shook her head. „It's not your fault. Just rest."  
"Could I… could you…" He began, and Elizabeth carefully got up and brought him the bottle.  
„Bless you", Jack whispered after she had helped him drink and let his head fall back.  
Faced with her slightly soiled clothes, Elizabeth shrugged and got rid of them. She would deal with the mess tomorrow. Right now, she felt shattered and drained, cold and tired and couldn't be bothered with issues of wardrobe.

Naked, she climbed back into the bed and snuggled close to Jack under the blanket.  
„I'm flatterd as to what you believe me capable of, my little seagul", Jack whispered. „But right now, I don't think…" Elizabeth laid a finger across his lips and he grinned, then kissed her finger.  
They shared and emptied the bottle of dark rum together before Elizabeth leaned across Jack again to blow out the lantern.Resting her face on his shoulder, Elizabeth put her arm across Jack's chest, lightly resting her hadn on the bandaged wound. With some effort and trembling muscles, Jack laid his arms around her and turned his head to touch her crown with his cheek.

They fell asleep eventually, but Elizabeth awoke several timest hat night, gasping from a nightmare in which Jack had been shot dead before her eyes.

Each time, Jack would hold her close and murmur things into her hair she couldn't understand, until she calmed down and fell asleep again. But in the small hours of the night, the dreams subsided and let her be so that they both could find some rest.  
They had stayed under anchor for a couple of days to spare Jack's woundeed body the rolling and stamping of a ship at sea, but after a few days Jack made it out of bed with sheer force of will. Just for a few hours, and seemingly only to show the crew he was on the mend, before he gave the order to set sail for Tortuga and crawled back into his bed to let himself be nursed and pampered by Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth awoke the next morning she found Jack already up and sitting by the table. He was wearing no shirt and the scars on his back still made Elizabeth wince, but as he turned his head and smiled at her, she felt her heart flutter inside her breast again.  
„Good morning, my little seagull", he said and put his compass down, then swung one leg around the back of the chair to look at her.

„Are you happy to have your compass back?", Elizabeth asked and Jack gave the thing on the table a long look before picking it up again. Then he got up and walked over to the bed where he sat down next to her.  
„No", he said.  
Elizabeth blinked in puzzlement and sat up. „No? Why not?"  
„Because", Jack began with a flourish and opened the lid, „It is absolutely useless.  
„Is it? I thought…"  
„Oh, it does", Jack said and showed her the compass where the needle just stopped spinning. „But no matter what I think of", he said, „The needle never points anywhere else but at you."

Elizabeth blinked again and then slowly looked up at Jack again who snapped the lid shut and threw the thing over his shoulder into a corner. Then he took her by the shoulders and gently pressed her back into the pillows with a soft and passionate kiss.

x x x x x x x

About a week later, Jack was on the mend again and was even able to stand at the wheel for a couple of hours a day. One night then, shortly before they would reach Tortuga, Jack made a nightly round on deck and found Elizabeth standing at the bow, arms slung around her body.  
She didn't turn around although she must have heard him coming, and he stopped close behind her and remained silent, following her stare into the endless starry night.

„I'm afraid, Jack", she whispered after a while.  
"What, with me at your side?" He leaned sideways to look at her and she smiled slightly. „What are you afraid of, my little seagull?"  
Elizabeth shrugged and hugged herself closer. „I'm not sure I can put my finger on it. It's… it's that I came so close to loosing you, and can't shake off the feeling at how frail and fragile life is…"  
Jack took another step forward, put his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace.  
„It is, little seagull. That's what makes it so precious."  
Elizabeth turned around and put her hands on Jack's shoulders. „I never knew you were a philosopher at heart, Jack."

„I am a man of many hidden talents", Jack replied with a meaningful smile and Elizabeth laid both her hands on his cheeks.  
„Kiss me", she said, and Jack bend his head and did exactly that. After some long moments, he slowly straightened up again, as short of breath as she was.  
„Like that?" he asked in a whisper, and Elizabeth nodded with a smile. Then she sighed and leaned her head against Jack's shoulder.  
"You know", she said, „It just came to my mind that even if I have been an adulteress, I am so no longer. I am a widow now. It feels strange. I always thought being a widow would fill you with only grief, never freedom and relief. It sounds cruel towards Will."

„Mayhap." Jack gently lifted her chin with his finger. „But bear in mind, he was cruel to you in the first place."  
"You are right, but still…"  
He looked at her and Elizabeth could only shrug. „Now I am free. In a way. I can go where ever I want, without fearing to be dragged back to Port Royal, my husband and my father. For I am dishonoured, a whore of a pirate, and worthless in the eyes of proper citizen and nobility."  
„Whore of a pirate?" Jack asked with a tilted head and a furowed brow.  
„Well, not really a whore", Elizabeth said and ran her finger up and down Jack's chest. „Not really, I mean, I'm not being paid. At least not in coin."  
„Not in coin?" He lifted both his brows in interest as he looked down at her. „In what, then?"

Elizabeth smiled sweetly up at him and ran her forefinger along the contures of his face which made him swallow and close his eyes.  
„Something far more valuable than coins or any treasures you could give me", she whispered and rested her hand at the back of his neck, lips slightly parted as Jack bend his head forward with his eyes half closed. Their lips brushed in a soft kiss.  
„More vaulable than a load of gold and silver?", he whispered and Elizabeth nodded. They kissed again, again only a soft touch of lips.  
„More than all treasure that the sea has ever swallowed?"  
„Far more."  
„And what can that be?" he asked, still in a whisper, eyes closed, and a third time, their lips touched softly. Then he felt her smile. „You", she whispered. And Jack blinked.

A second or two he stared down at her, then he suddenly burst out laughing, threw his head back and howled like a wolf with laughter, ignoring the fact that he had lost his hat.

Obviously, the way the few sailors still on deck looked at him, in their eyes he had also lost his mind. He laughed and laughed until tears ran down his cheeks, and snorting and gasping, he finally bend down to retrieve his hat.  
But rather than putting it on, he clamped it on Elizabeth's head instead, put a finger under her chin and kissed her again.  
„Right", he said, with glinting eyes. „You shall have me, pirate bride." He then looked at his hands, contemplated a while, and finally, chose one of his many rings and pulled it off the finger. „You want me, you shall have me. But allow me…"

He took her hand and pulled the ring of her finger, the goldring that once had bound her to, and was now only a sad reminder of, an oath she should never have made. He looked at it, and unceremoniously threw it over his shoulder where it vanished into the sea without neither a trace nor a sound.  
„Hey what… You… you…" Elizabeth began and Jack grinned.  
„Pirate?", he offered, and Elizabeth, not knowing what exactly he meant, still had to smile. „Pirate", she said, in the hopes that was what he wanted to hear. It was, by the way of his grin.

With that, he took her right hand and slipped the ring onto Elizabeth's third finger and closed his hand around hers. Looking into her eyes, his eyes glinting in a dark amber in the lantern light, he kissed her knuckles, and then swept her up into his arms with a chuckle. Elizabeth had to laugh as well now and slapped Jack's hat back onto his own head, and Jack carried her towards his cabin, still laughing under his breath.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except for my weird ideas.

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Chapter four:

In which a wedding takes place without any reason to celebrate.

Helped myself to a couple of ideas from the Dead Man's Chest without the story of the film actually happening, but I like the concept of Davy Jones.

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„Is this a pirate's wedding, then?", Elizabeth asked from the bed where he had dropped her as Jack closed the door. He turned and flashed her a lopsided grin.  
„Oh no, my little seagull. That was only a pirate's proposal. For a wedding, we need the captain of another ship."  
„Oh, a proposal, is it?" Elizabeth grinned up at him as Jack turned around with a flourish and went down on his kneew before the bed. „I thought a proposal would come before… you know…"  
„Oh, I know", Jack said with a shrug. „But…" and then he leaned forward and pressed her down, leaning over her. „But… I am a pirate. No need to wait for…"  
„Right", Elizabeth said as buried both her hands in his hair to pull his face closer to hers. „Pirate."

„Pirate." Jack grinned before kissing her and kicked off his left boot. As he was about to pull himself into the bed beside her and wriggled his other foot, a loud booming sound suddenly shook the whole ship. Jack fell out of the bed again and rolled across the floor, the whole ship had suddenly tilted in a dangerous angle.

Cursing and swearing, Jack scrambled to his feet again and grabbed his boot. In the confusion of falling chairs and tables, of rolling bottles and a Jack that was swearing like she never had heard a man swear before, she couldn't be too sure, but Jack seemed to have visibly paled. But it might have been a trick of the light.

„You stay in here", he yelled before storming out and slamming the door shut behind him. Elizabeth had just time to blink and sit up straight before the door opened and Jack rushed in again, grabbed his hat and slammed it on his head before he was out of the door again.

He threw the door shut with such a force that the lock couldn't hold it and the door swung up again. In the dim light outside Elizabeth could see the faint outline of a ship lying along the Pearl. Slowly she got up and walked hesitatingly to the door. There was a deadly stillness out on deck. The stillness of fear, of terror.

„Jack Sparrow", said a voice that made Elizabeth shudder. Jack straightened up and hooked his thumbs in his belt. „Captain Jack Sparrow."

„So we meet again. Finally. I must say you are quite resourcful. But I get everyone in the end." A thump and a tock, the heavy step of a man with a wooden leg, and Elizabeth had to stiffle a scream when the man, no, the creature, stepped into her view.

He must have heard the sound, for he turned his head and stared directly into Elizabeth's eyes. „A woman?"  
„She is…" began Jack, but the creature cut him off with a wave of his hand.  
„Come here, woman", he said, and Elizabeth found there was no disobeying that voice, and if only from sheer terror. She took a step, and another, and faced the horrible being that stared down at her from cold, cruel eyes.  
"A woman, Jack Sparrow."

„Captain Davy Jones, may I introduce to you…" Jack began again in a desperate attempt to remain, if not atop the situation, then at least floating, but Davy Jones ignored him.  
„Who are you, woman? Are you one of Jack's whores?"  
„Lizzie", Jack began, but Davy Jones silenced him with a long, icy stare.  
„Whatever your plans for the night where, Sparrow, you have to postpone them. You do remember the oath you made, don't you?"  
„I… I must say I have…" Jack began again and Jones made a step towards him.

Thump. Tock.

„You pledged yourself to the Flying Dutchman, to serve your hundred years. You have only served three, Jack Sparrow. Ninety-seven more to go. And you begin tonight."  
„No!" It was Elizabeth , and only as she had said it she clapped her hands over her mouth. Jones slowly turned his stare and she swallowed.  
"Why not?", he asked in a conversational tone, and Elizabeth leaped forward in a desperate attmept to save Jack.  
„Because it… tonight is…"  
„Your… first night?", Jones asked in an attempt of a dreamy voice. „Are you married, then Jack? Never thought you'd find a woman stupid enough to do so."  
Jack opened his mouth to protest but didn't get far. Elizabeth answered in his stead.

„No. We're not married. But we will, as soon as we find a Captain who will marry us."  
She said that in sheer defiance of the fact of Davy Jones, and the knowledge that there was no way of stopping him, would he want to take Jack away. And that he wanted to he had made clear enough.

„A captain to marry you, right?", Davy Jones, and it took Elizabeth a while before she realized that the scraping, coughing sound that came from him was laughter. „By the dark ocean and all it's waves", he snorted. „But surely, you wouldn't refuse me, would you? I've never before used that right!"

„Er…" Jack said, and Elizabeth stepped beside him, taking his arm. „We'd be honoured", she said.

"Honoured?", croaked Jack, staring at her, but she looked firmly at Jones with more bravery than she actually felt. „You wouldn't really tear apart a couple in their wedding night, would you?", she asked then, and Jones scratched his, for want of a better term, beard and contemplated this.  
„I might", he said. „And I might not. But thinking about it, I have an idea. Let me know if you like it, Jack Sparrow."

He walked a few steps back and forth in front of them. It was the first time that Elizabeth could look around her and saw that Davy Jones' crew was more than a match for him. And there was no denying, either, that it looked badly for the crew of the Pearl.

Thump. Tock. Thump. Tock.

All were disarmed, all of them had at least one or two weapons pointed at him. There was no escape, no chance in fight. And probably not in deceit. The way things looked, they looked bleak for Jack Sparrow, and when she looked at him, she saw how pale he was and how the vein in his throat throbbed frantically. He was thinking of a way out, but today, tonight, there was none.

Thump. Tock. Thump. Tock.

Elizabeth cursed her and his fate and gently squeezed his arm. He looked down at her and flashed her a desperate, apologetic smile before putting his hand on hers. So this was how it would end, Elizabeth thought. And before it even really had begun.

Thump.

But before she could break out in tears, Davy Jones obviously was through with his thinking. He turned and looked at them with what he obviously thought was his sunday smile.

Tock.

„I grant you a deal", he said. „A deal for Captain Jack Sparrow, on his wedding day."  
Grinning, or attempting to, he opened his arms and signalled something to his crew, who slowly and cautiously lowered their weapons. A nervous shuffling went through the crew, but no one dared really move.  
„I say", Jones said. „I wed you two, as is my right as a captain. All lawful and legal. In return, I demand the right of _primae noctem_ and I will spare your crew and your ship. And maybe, Jack Sparrow, I spare even you."

Jack swallowed and blinked. He didn't know that term, but Elizabeth obviously did. She had paled visibly and clung to his arm in a way that he was sure she would have slumped to the ground had he not held her up.

"Ye've lost me there", he said, and the left corner of Jones' mouth twitched.

„The first night", he said. „Claimed in bygone times by landlords from their underlings. And as it is, I am as much the lord here as any lord that walks solid earth. So I claim what is rightfully mine. And in return, as a favour to a newly wed man, I will spare your ship and crew. Do you accept? I will not repeat my offer."

„We accept", Elizabeth said in a cold voice and straightened up.  
"No!" Jack grabbed both her arms and turned her around to look at her. „No! Lizzie! Are you mad? You can't…"  
„Jack", she said. „Don't be stupid. We don't have a choice. Will you go down and sacrifice all the men with you just to… spare me from…" She faltered, but took a deep breath and finished her sentence. „From another man?"  
„Lizzie…" he tried, but her chin was set forward and inwardly, he knew she was right. But once, just this once, he would have liked not to trick or deal his way out of a situation. Yet it seemed inevitable.

„You can't sacrifice yourself for my sake", he began lamely, but she shook her head.  
"Spare me that. I've told you how I got those keys from the guard that opened your shackles, did I? I know what I can and can't do, Jack."

She took a deep breath and tried to shake off the feeling of panic as Jack stared at her with a pain in his eyes she had never sen there before. Reasoning with Jack as much as with herself she went on. „He will kill you and the crew, and me, for that matter." She put a hand on his cheek. „Jack. He'll kill us all. Me included. I have a right to save myself, haven't I? And with me your men, and you? Don't be stupid. It's only a night." Brave words, she thought. Would she really be able to? Was there a choice?

„I…" Jack began, but he knew he had lost. She was right. For some reason, she wasn't as terrified of Davy Jones as he was, or maybe she was only better at keeping it hidden. He swallowed again and nodded slowly.

"Have it your way, then", he said and turned again to face Jones. He straightened up and tried to keep his posture. „I suppose I'm not in the position to demand anything but do you promise to bring her back?"  
„Oh, I will bring her back", Jones said. „I will."  
„Good, er…"

But there was not really much left to say. He took Elizabeth's arm and straightened up, removing his hat with his other hand. He felt Elizabeth tremble at his side and gently patted her hand with his. They exchanged a glance and a smile, then Davy Jones stood before them and cleared his throat.

„My dear friends, fellows, sailors and comrades, for united we are all on this happy occasion…"

Get on with it, Jack thought with gritted teeth, but Jones seemed to relish his position. On and on he went, but finally, he got to the siginficant part.  
Elizabeth's voice was clear and strong, only a slight tremble was audible underneath.  
„I will."  
Jack himself had the feeling he would suffocate at his own voice and had to clear his throat before he could answer, but then his voice rang out clear and deep, as well.  
„I will."  
„And so", Davy Jones said, „With the power that has been granted to me, I proclaim you husband and wife." He winked at Jack „You may kiss the bride, although I assume you've done so before, already."

Jack shot him a sour look bevor he turned and put a finger under Elizabeth's chin. He bend down and gently brushed her lips with his, but she surprised him with laying her hands on his cheeks and hungryly opening her lips to him. He dropped his hat and pulled her close, while she buried her hands in his hair, and pressed her close to him.

Slowly, hesitatingly, reluctantly the two parted from each other, locked into each other's gaze. There would be no wedding night, no romantig feelings or moments to share. Jack stooped to retrieve his hat, and someone behind them said, in a very small voice: „hooray?"  
Everyone slowly turned, and Ragetti shrugged with an embarrassed grin. „Just thought… eh…"

„Right he is!", bellowed Jones. „All hail the bride!"

And the men from the Dutchman burst out into a frenzied howling and screaming; it didn't really sound like a cheer, more like something to freeze the marrow of your bones. The crew of the Pearl reluctantly tried to join in, but the few meek hoorays were lost among the screams of Davy Jones' crew.  
„Say goodnight, Jack", Jones said and held out his hand to Elizabeth. „Now, it is my turn."  
„Goodnight", Jack said, and the sound hardly escaped his lips, so hard was he gritting his teeth. His wits had left him, he could think of nothing else to say.

„Goodnight, Jack. See you in the morning", Elizabeth replied as she passed him by. She touched his arm, just a brush of her hands on his shirt, and then Jones took her hand in his and nodded to Jack.  
„Good night, Captain. I may think of you."

Then he turned and took Elizabeth with him onto his ship. Slowly, grinning and waving their weapons menacingly, his crew followed, and then the Dutchman drifted away, not more than three hundred yards, and dropped her anchor again.

Stony silence spread on board of the Black Pearl. No one really knew what to say, and had they done so, no one had dared, in any case.

The first one to move was Gibbs, and he picked up a bottle of Rum from a crate and slowly and carefully walked up to Jack who stood gripping the railing, staring across the ocean as if he could kill Jones with his looks alone.

„Here", Gibbs said in a low voice and handed Jack the bottle. „There's more where that came from." He turned and softly stepped back again, at a loss as to what to do next. Jack pulled out the cork out of the bottle with his teeth and spat it out, then emptied the bottle in long, greedy gulps. He threw the empty bottle as fas as he could, and the distant splash was the only sound for a while.

Then Jack slammed both his fists onto the railing as hard as he could grunting with pain, and turned on his heel, stormed past his men and vanished into his cabin, slamming the door shut behind him. No one dared to comment, or even look at him.

The second bottle of rum still lay untouched beside Jack on the bed when the sun came up.  
Not only had he not touched the bottle, he had not touched his pillow, either, had sat mute and numb on his cot with his hand hanging down between his knees, staring into nothing.

A knock on the door awoke him from his trance.

„Cap'n?"  
„Gibbs?"  
The door opened cautiously. „The Dutchman is lifting anchor, sir."  
"Be right there."  
Why did he feel nothing? He should have been furious, or terrified, or at least relieved. But he was only numb, and to be honest, it was not the time to be relieved yet. He would spare the ship and crew, he had said. But only maybe would he spare Jack.

The way he was feeling right now, he wasn't too sure he wanted to be spared at all. He opened the door and stepped out, blinking in the gleaming sunlight. The Dutchman made a slow turning and held towards the Pearl, but she was gaining far more speed than she should have. The crew watched the ship coming nearer, and suddenly everyone realised that it was far too fast.

"They'll ram us, by god", Gibbs said, and Jack grabbed the railing again, watching the eerie ship with his teethed snout coming nearer at a speed it could not possibly possess, without any wind. Well, a normal ship couldn't have, but this was the Flying Dutchman.

The men behind Jack began to run frantically, jumped into rigging and pulled at ropes, to try a turning that wouldn't work, would be far too late, anyway. Yet Jack just stared at the ship, feeling hardly nothing.  
Nearer the Dutchman came and nearer, and then they could see their captain standing at the bow with Elizabeth in his arms. He laughed and waved his hat, pressing her close to him, she was struggling and screaming.

„I'll bring her back Jack!", Jones roared as the Dutchman raced nearer. „Just like I promised! I just didn't say when!"

And with that, the bow of the Flying Dutchman tilted forward in an impossible angle, and with a roar and a splashing of the waves, went underwater less than ten feet before she would have crashed into the Black Pearl. The Pearl rocked and swayed, and then the sea was suddenly clear and smooth again.

„No", whispered Jack and let go of the railing. „No!"  
He turned and ran across the deck, but the Dutchman didn't emerge on the other side. For a second he stared at the sea before him, then he slowly curled his hands into fists.  
„Jones!" He screamed. „Davy Jones!" He took his hat and threw it down with all force he had and threw his arms upward as if summoning heaven and hell as a witness.  
„I curse you, Jones! I curse you, Davy Jones! I will hunt you! Do you hear me? I will hunt you down if it's the last thing I do! I curse you with my last dying breath, Davy Jones!!"

Then he fell down to his knees and hit the deck with his fists, again and again, until the coarse wood had scraped his hands raw and bleeding. But now matter how much it hurt, there was nothing worse than the pain inside.

In panic, Elizabeth had tried to get free from Davy Jones' grip, expecting the end in a shower of splinters and water, but instead, the ship had suddenly tilted forward.

The last thing she had seen was the Pearl, the starboard railing and Jack, Gibbs beside him, both gripping the railing and staring openmouthed in sheer terror at the Dutchman before water had suddenly engulfed her.

She was struggling, but Jones held his grip, and panic filled her completely. He would kill her. She would drown. Bubbles escaped her lips in her struggle to get free, but there was no escaping that grip.  
Deeper and deeper the Dutchman went, and Elizabeth slowly had to accept her end. She grew weaker by the second, and there was no breath left, no air in her lungs any more.  
"Breathe", Jones suddenly said beside her. „Breathe. Just get used to it."  
She stared at him, standing as comfortably as if under a blue, sunny sky, as around them the ocean grew darker and darker. He spoke, and she could hear… that was impossible. Was it? Then her last strength waned, and her body gulped for air that wasn't there.

But instead of drowning, she felt she could breathe. She stared at Jones, who laughed heartily and slapped her back. She could breathe the water.

Jones had let go of her now, and she gripped the railing for support. They were still going deeper, and it was still getting darker around them. Feeling strangely elated and almost laughing, Elizabeth realized with wonder that around her, a soft, green glow began to lighten the darkness of the endless ocean around them.

The glow, it turned out as she looked around, came from the Flying Dutchman herself; a patina of algae covering her every surface was emanating a steady, soft glow that instantly attracted fish and other creatures of the eternal night in the deep sea.

She saw strange fish, carrying lanterns on their snouts, tentacles with little lanterns, like nightwatchmen in any city.

Glowing jellyfish accompanied them, all sorts of colours and forms there were, and creatures so strangely shaped and coloured that there was no description to them.

Almost forgetting her perilious situation, she stared and watched in awe, only to be dragged out of her dreams by a thump and a trembling that went through the ship. They had hit the ground, and Elizabeth remembered where, and whith whom, she was.  
„Welcome to my kingdom, Elizabeth", Jones said to her in a conversational, almost friendly tone. „And now, if you please, I would like to know if you were really worth sparing the soul of Jack Sparrow."

Not knowing what else to do, Elizabeth slowly went down on her knees before Davy Jones and watchted his eyes slowly grew wider, before, when she got down to business, they closed altogether as he groped for the railing for support.

x x x x x x x x

The Pearl hade made her way back to Tortuga, but Jack refused to go on land. He told the crew to go and amuse themselves, drink, eat, whore, whatever, but he stayed aboard his ship, at the helm, staring into the night, across the horizon, where the sky meats the ocean.

The sea under him.  
The sea that had swallowed her.  
He would bring her back he had said. Only not when he would do so. Still feeling as if his whole body was made out of lead, he walked back to his cabin and slumped onto a chair.

He uncorked a bottle of rum using his teeth, spat out the cork and took a gulp, but no taste was on his tongue, and no warmth in his belly, not even after he drank the whole damned bottle.

Then his eyes fell onto a small box lying neglected in a corner, and slowly he stood up, walked over and went down onto his knees, picking up his compass.  
Slowly, and with trembling hands, he opened the lid and stared at the needle, turning, turning and turning. It didn't stop, it didn't swing, it just turned and turned, and endless movement.  
No beginning, no end.

And for the first time since he had left his boyhood behind, Jack Sparrow wept.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own nothing, except for my weird ideas.

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Chapter five:

Jones has taken Elizabeth, and there is no escaping the Flying Dutchman.

But while Jack sails the seas in pursuit of Davy Jones, he forgets to look at his compass again.

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„Gibbs."  
„Cap'n?"  
„Is it full moon tonight?"  
„Couldn't say, Cap'n", Gibbs replied cautiously, looking up into the clouded sky. Wind was ruffling their hair and clothes, and the air was smelling of lightning. They were heading into a storm, but since the day Davy Jones had taken Elizabeth with him, Jack had never had the Pearl stop her journey, except for that first night in Tortuga.  
He had let his men choose: They could come aboard again, or leave the ship here and look elsewhere for work aboard a ship. But if they stayed, they would stay with him, and never would he set foot on dry land again before he had freed Elizabeth from the clutches of the ocean.

And, miraculously, all had stayed. There was a certain, grim loyality towards their captain, whose woman, wife, even, had sacrificed herself to save them all, and no one had ever complained. Eleven full moons had passed, the only time in which Jack Sparrow still could think. For full moon it had been, or would have been, their wedding night, and the full moon was the only thing that Jack acknowledged in terms of the passing of the time.

Eleven months in which Jack had not set foot on dry land.

Eleven months of days spent at the helm, cruising the sea, watching the horizon.

Eleven months of cold, lonely nights with hardly any sleep. Her face, as the water closed over the ship, did haunt him in every waking moment, and followed him into his dreams.

It was bad enough when he was awake. It was worse when he dreamed. So he chose to dream as little as he could. Every night, he drank as much as he could to knock him senseless, to spare himself the labour of dreaming.  
Most nights, it would work.  
Sometimes, it didn't.

Like last night. Her screams followed him into the realms of sleep, her face surfaced from the ocean, pale, swollen, bloated, empty eyes accusing him of foolishness and his inability to save her. Had he had any choice about it, he would have stopped sleeping altogether.

„Might be full moon", Gibbs said, shrugging uneasily.  
„That would be the twelfth one, Gibbs."  
Joshamee Gibbs didn't have to ask. And it seemed strangely fitting that this night, a year after their encounter with Davy Jones, would likely see the end of the Black Pearl. Heading due north, they had run into a thunderstorm.

That morning, the dawn of their first anniversary, had there been any occasion to celebrate this, Jask had, for the first time in a year, picked up his compass again. And as he had cautiously opened the lid with a heavy heart, the needle had slowly spun, but slowed down more and more, swivvelled around a bit and then stopped.  
Pointing into that direction they were heading now.

„Gibbs!!" he had yelled, running out of his cabin, hatless, shirtless, bootless, compass in hand. „I have a heading!"  
And Gibbs, belying his clumsy and chubby form, had made a jump up the stairs and grabbed the steering wheel.  
"North-North-East!" Jack had yelled. „North-North-East!"

So they had set full sail and headed north-north-east. Directly into a stormfront.

By now, it was far too late to turn, and even if it had been, Jack would have refused to turn, a fact Gibbs was well aware of. They would just have to sit tight and hope the Pearl would make it. She might. And again, she might not.

Lightning flickered across the horizon. The waves began to rock the Pearl back and forth, up and down. Seaspray hit the deck, and the wind grew stronger and wilder until the first wave hit the bow and splashed across the deck. The wind howled, tore at the rigging, and the whole ship bobbed as if a giant hand was shaking it by the mast.  
Men ran screaming back and forth on deck, yelling commands. They clung to ropes and masts and tried to keep her steady while suddenly all the heavens opened and no one knew any more if it was rain or seawater around them. There was water everywhere. Sailor's hell.

In between the screaming, heaving chaos that was the deck of the Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow stood unmovingly, still as a stone, and stared at his compass again, where the needle slowly turned,and turned, and turned. His heading was lost.  
He snapped the lid shut and looked up, into the raging maelstorm that had engulfed his ship. Another wave crashed on deck and washed over him, but he just gripped the railing and let the water flow. He didn't care. A year was a long time, and Jones not a man holding true to his word. _Much like myself_, Jack thought grimly. Too much like himself. He suddenly knew that Elizabeth would never come back.

Maybe this was what he really had wanted, this, the storm. To die at sea, to be brought to the netherworlds by the Flying Dutchman.

And maybe catch a last glance at Elizabeth again in passing.

He slowly walked up the stairs to the helm and shooed the dripping, desperate man away who slunk away into the darkness below him.

Gripping the wheel, Jack faced the wind and struck out his chin. This time he would face it like a man, he thought. No escaping through the back door. No tricks. No cheats. He felt a short pang of pity for his crew, but such was the fate of all sailors. They sailed the sea, but they didn't master her. One day, she would claim everyone.

Another wave hit the Pearl and almost toppled her over. Jack lost his balance and almost fell, only holding onto the wheel with all power he had let him stay aboard. The sea had almost claimed him, but he would not give in. He would go down with his ship. He would finally meet that cursed Davy Jones and take his revenge.  
„Come and get me, Jones", he said grimly.  
Another wave hit the Pearl, and the main mast groaned under the impact. Lightning struck with a deafening crack and turned the night into day.  
„We have to cut the mast!" Gibbs screamed at Jack through the roaring of storm and sea.  
„We'll not make it! We have to cut the mast!!"  
„No!" Jack screamed back. He would not cripple his ship only to sink anyway.

Gibbs stared at him, and then, realising what was finally happening, crossed himself and scurried away. Another wave washed across the deck, almost tripping her over. Jack tore at the wheel, turned it here, and there, and took the next wave in an angle that made the Pearl able to ride across it's prow. She crashed down on the other side, but held. The men howled.

With the devil at the helm, that was a sailor's saying.

Will we get through that? With the devil at the helm.

Jack grinned. He would have enjoyed to be the devil, he would have been a better match for Jones if he was. He spun the rudder when the next wave came into sight, and again, the Pearl, pride of his life, rode on the wave like a cork.  
He couldn't keep this up forever, he knew. Sooner or later he would make a mistake, would misjudge either the wave or the ship. Or a wave would come who was simply too big. But right now, Jack Sparrow was the devil at the helm, and the Black Pearl rode the waves of the raging storm like a seagull in the harbour. The devil at the helm.

Another wave. _Come and get me, Jones_.

And another. _Show your ugly face, Jones_.

And as Jack waited for the fatal, the last one, the wind suddenly turned.

A crack of lightning, a boom of thunder. And the next wave was considerably smaller than the one before. The rain slackened into a steady stream of water, gently rushing from above, no longer from all directions at once.

The storm slackened. And the Black Pearl had made it through, unscathed.

Another gush of wind hit the sails and the rigging creaked, the ship leaned into the wind and took up course again. North-North-east.  
At the horizon, the rest of the wind parted the clouds like a wolf would a flock of sheep, and before them, a full moon hung low in the sky like a golden disc, beckoning with her gentle glow.

The Pearl danced across the waves, sails torn but still hanging, and slowly, realisation trickled into the men that they had made it. They had survived.

Slowly, Gibbs made his way up the stairs to stand beside Jack.  
„That was quite a bit of wind there, Cap'n."  
„It was, Gibbs. Take the rudder." _Not tonight, obviously. Damn it all to hell_.  
And with that, Jack vanished into his cabin again, leaving Gibbs to cross the wind to bring the Pearl into a position to drop the anchor. They needed to mend the sails.

The crew ran back and forth, to check the deck and everything else for damage. In the gleam of the full moon hanging low in the sky the sight was good, and everyone was far too excited to just settle down. Caught in the maws of hell, they had escaped, against all odds.

As Gibbs fixed the rudder with a pole, he heard a call from the bow.

„Mr Gibbs!"  
„Ragetti?" He came down the stairs and then sudddenly furrowed his brow. Ragetti's tone had had something… awfully strange about it.  
„Mr Gibbs", Ragetti said, scratching his head as he reached Gibbs. „Since when do we 'ave a figure'ead?"  
„A figurehead? Don't be silly. The Pearl lost her figurehead years ago. It must be a broken Plank."  
Ragetti grinned unhappily, but that was no big deal with his sorry face. „Then it must be a plank that looks like a woman, Mr Gibbs."

Gibbs snorted and walked towards the bow to look down, but he could see nothing. The Pearl had turned slightly in the current and the bow was hidden in shadows.  
"I don't see a fucking thing", Gibbs murmured and turned.  
"Mr Gibbs?"  
„Aye?", Gibbs said, then grew stiff as a pole and white as a sheet. That hadn't been Ragetti. That had been a woman's voice. Feeling the hairs on his arms rise, he slowly turned again.  
„Who's there?", he asked, trying to sound brave. Ragetti beside him started to bite his nails.  
„Elizabeth."  
„Holy mother of god", Gibbs gasped and crossed himself. Then he slowly exchanged a glance with Ragetti. „Did I hear that name aloud, or am I going mad.?"  
Ragetti shrugged, fear in his eye. Gibbs crossed himself again.

„Elizabeth. What do you want?"  
"Don't ask stupid questions. Come aboard?"  
"So? What stops you?", Gibbs asked, believing himself to be dealing with a ghost. His knees were as weak as soggy bread. He crossed himself again and knocked on the railing in front of him, as well, to be on the safe side.  
„What stops me", Elizabeth's voice cam from the darkness below them, „Is the fact that, at present, I wear nothing else than my skin."  
Gibbs and Ragetti exchanged a horrified glance.

„Mr Gibbs? You still there?"  
„A… Aye?"  
„Please, could you drop me a shirt? Or something?"  
„Eh… um…" Another helpless glance at Ragetti told him that the sailor was no better off than himself and shrugged. He pulled his shirt over his head and held it out over the railing.  
„You have to drop it, Mr Gibbs", Elizabeth said dryly. „I've no tentacles or anything like that."

„Well that's something to be relieved about", Gibbs murmured and dropped the shirt. Then he swore he heard a curse, and a splash. Looking at Ragetti again, he shrugged, as did the sailor, and both carefully walked back to the mast again, into the light of the freshly lit lanterns.

„Gibbs?", Jack said. He had just left his cabin again and stared puzzled at his first mate, barechested and pale. „What on earth…"  
„On sea, Sir. On sea. I think I had an encounter… with a ghost, Sir." He crossed himself again, but it did nothing to comfort him.  
„A ghost?", Jack asked dryly, and Gibbs nodded.  
"A ghost", he said. To be precise, and I am sorry to say that, it used the name … Elizabeth… and demanded… a shirt… hey!" At the sound of that name, Jack had made a move as fast as lightning and was grabbing Gibbs by the shoulders.  
„You have what? Where? When?!" Jack shook his forst mate in a way that made the ppor man's teech clatter. „By god, Captain!", he yelled at least and pushed Jack's hands off. Instantly he curled them into fists.

„At the bow. But then there ws a splash, and gone was the voice, and with it, me shirt."  
„Not completely", a voice was heard from some distance before Jack could say something. He paled, visibly even in the moonlight. „Lizzie…"  
He turned around and walked slowly towards the railing. His hands shook, and so did his voice. „Lizzie?"  
„Jack?" The voice was coming from below, but he couldn't see anything in the shadows. „Throw me a rope?"  
„Lizzie…" Immobilized, Jack stood at the railing and stared down into the darkness but he couldn't see a thing. Beside him, Gibbs, his face pale and uneasy, unrolled a coil of rope.

„Cap'n?", he asked cautiously, and Jack nodded.  
He took a step back and crossed his arms. His hands were shaking, and he didn't want the crew to see this. But right now, no one had even noticed it if he had made a handstand and dropped his pants, all eyes were fixed on the railing and the rope at which Gibbs was slowly pulling.  
A hand reached over the railing, and another. A pair of arms. Then a face.  
„Lizzie", Jack said, and she pulled herself up onto the railing, trying to smile. „Jack…"  
He didn't move. He didn't dare. Maybe he was dreaming, and moving would make him wake up Or had his compass been true, after all?

Or was this a dream?

If it was a dream, it turned into a nightmare. Elizabeth heaved herself up and over the railing, and her body hit the deck with a fleshy splat. The wet shirt clung to her body and made the man look anywhere but at her with at the same time not taking their eyes of her. But below…

Scales.

Tail fin.

Jack had to swallow the bile rising in his throat. She had no legs anymore, just a scaly, silvery, slippery fish tail.

This was not Elizabeth! He pulled his pistol and cocked it. „Begone", he said in a voice coming from a grave. „Go back to Davy Jones and his foul creatures. I will not have such as you aboard my ship!"  
„Jack!", she screamed. „Jack don't!"  
„Begone!" He yelled back and fired. By sheer chance Gibbs was standing close enough to him to grab his arm and the ball hit the mast, riocheting off into the dark after leaving a cloud of wooden splinters.

„Jack", the woman that was half Elizabeth said. „Jack, please. It's me. Elizabeth. Please."  
Clearly, she was at a huge disadvantage. She could neither get up nor run. Jack's arm was still trembling, and Elizabeth held out her hands to him. Tears streamed down her face.  
„Jack", she said hoarsely. „It's me. I'm not Davy Jones' creature."  
„You don't look very convincing", Jack said. „What with the tail and all."  
She looked down at herself and shrugged, wiping her face. „And what could I do about it? He didn't let me drown, at least. Do you hear?" She looked up, but Jack's face had locked her out.

"No, he didn't." Slowly, Jack stuck the pistol back into the holster. „He made you his own."  
„I'm not, Jack. Not any more. Don't you listen?"  
"Then why are you here?"  
„Because he let me go!"  
„After all that time?"  
Her eyes widened. „How long... how long have I been gone? I came back as fast as I could…"

Jack slowly crossed his arms. „A year. But you don't fool me", he said. „Get rid of that." With that, he turned and gestured at his men. „Didn't you hear that? It was an order. Get rid of that. Permamently, if you please."  
„Jack!"  
It was clear she tried to stand up, but as clear was it she couldn't. „Jack!" It was desolate, desperate, an agonized scream. But Jack only stiffened his shoulders.  
The Elizabeth-being stared at his back and then, slowly, she hid her face in her hands and sobbed. Cautiously, Gibbs came nearer, and then went down into a crouch beside her.  
„Miss?" He asked softly, and the woman, clearly Elizabeth, at least from hips upward, looked at him from red-rimmed eyes, tears streaming down her face.

„It is me", she whispered. I can't help what Jones made me. How long…"  
„I know", Gibbs whispered. For some reason, he was suddenly convinced that this was Elizabeth, no matter how her lower half looked like. „And considering what some of his crew look like", he added in a much louder voice, „You have got off lightly, lass."  
„A year tonight", he added then as an afterthought and she stared even more desolately at him. She sobbed again, shaking her mead in mute and fruitless denial. Gibbs patted her arm.

„Cap'n?", he said as he straightened up again.  
„I gave you an order", Jack said coldly and turned. „Do you need it in writing, even if you can't read? Get that thing off my ship." He stared at Gibbs, but Gibbs, for once, had no mind, of obeying his captain. „Think", he said. „By god, before you kill her, look closer at her. She is…"  
„She is Davy Jones' creature!", said Jack and pulled the other pistol.  
„Get her off or I will shoot her, and this time, whoever stops me will get the next bullet!"  
His voice sounded absolutely deadly, and Elizabeth shrunk into a ball of fear at his rage. Then she looked up, into his face, into his eyes, and slowly straightened up again. All was lost. She had endured all this for nothing.

„Kill me then, Jack", she said. „I came back for you, but you do not want me any more. Maybe you can't. But I came back, from the deepest sea, from the blackest abyss, I came back. Kill me then."  
The muzzle of the pistol trembled as Jack cocked the weapon. „Go", he said, but his voice suddenly didn't sound so sure any more.  
„Kill me", she said. „I won't go. Not until I finally made it. But let me give my message first." She straightened up once more and looked at Jack, tears still running down her cheeks.  
„Davy Jones send me back. He says your crew is free, as is your ship. As are you, Jack Sparrow. I bought your soul back from him. So go on, kill me."  
Jack stared down at her, torn between relief at seeing her again and revulsion at seeing what had happened to her.  
„Seagull, yes?", Elizabeth said, wiping her face. „The symbol of salvation. Was that your plan all along? To feed me to Jones, should you ever come across him again?"

„No…" Jack whispered hoarsely. „No, I…"  
The weapon wavered, and then suddenly hit the deck with a clatter. Jack took a deep breath and rubbed both hands across his face.  
„Elizabeth", he said finally. And after a long pause: „You've got no legs any more…"  
She wrung her hands and tried to smile. „But the rest is still me, Jack."

Jack made two heavy, hesitating steps toward her and slowly got down on one knee before her. He gave her a long, dubious look, his jaws working like millstones.  
„I didn't… never… I'd never have let you go with Jones, I never should've… he faltered, trying to think of something to say, but his brain failed him completely. He just stared at her and then, after what seemed like an eternity, she held out her hands to him.  
„Pirate?", she said and tried to smile. Jack blinked and stared first at her hands, then at her face, then back at her hands again. „Pirate?"  
Elizabeth shrugged. „Which man on earth can claim of himself to have a meermaid for a lover?" She still held out his hands, and with a deep breath, Jack cautiously extended his own.

When he touched her, he expected the touch to be cold, slimy and fishy, but instead he felt only warm living flesh touch his. He swallowed.  
He took her other hand with his other hand, and for a while, just crouched there, holding on to her hands with his, unable to find any words. Then, finally, he shook his head in desperation.

A gentle breeze sprang up and ruffled his hair as well as hers, which was beginning to dry.  
„What am I supposed to do now?", he asked and Elizabeth smiled. „I don't know. I never planned beyond the moment when I finally found you. I didn't expect you'd want to kill me."  
Jack winced and closed his eyes for a second before flashing her an apologetic, lopsided grin. „I have…"  
„Cap'n…" Gibbs voice was stiff with awe, or terror, or maybe both.  
Jack turned around, then followed his first mate's pointing finger to look back at Elizabeth. At her lower half, to be precise. The scales receded.

He dropped her hands and touched her leg, for a leg, it suddenly was. Even Elizabeth herself gasped in surprise, she clearly had not expect this to happen. As her skin dried, the scales vanished. As did the fin. And the silvery sheen of her skin.  
And suddenly she was only a naked woman wearing only a wet shirt, sitting on the deck before a whole crew of pirates. She blushed furiously and tried to pull the shirt down, with moderate success.

Jack took a while to recover his wits, and a lot of people would propably have payed good money to see him like this. When he found his speech again, it was nothing as charming and witty, or annoying, as usual. He cleared his throat. „Lizzie…"  
He licked his lips, shook his head and tried again. „I…"  
Shaking his head angrily this time, as if whatever was coming to his mind just didn't do, he tried a third time. „I… I am sorry."  
Elizabet, still red-eyed from her tears, tried a smile. „I don't blame you. But there was no way I could send a letter to anounce my arrival. But now, could you…"  
„Everything", Jack blurted out and Elizabeth had to smile.

„Could you get me something to cover myself up?"  
And with that, Jack's old self finally got a hold onto his brain again.  
„Better, luv. I'll bring ye somewhere where ye can cover up." He winked at her and stood up, then gathered her into his arms and picked her up.

The full moon just barely touched the horizon when Jack kicked the door of his cabin close behind him. The men on deck were silent at first, then they statred exchanging glances, grins and nudges. As the first chuckles were heard, the door suddenly opened again and Jak struck his head out.  
„Oh and, have a few bottles on me. We survived the storm, and I am…" he glanced over his shoulders with a grin and went on: „I am going to consume my marriage tonight."

Having said that, he slammed the door shut again and they heard the bolt slitting into place from the inside.

And rum, now there's now sailor, and no pirate, whom you'd have to tell that twice. They had survived the storm and Davy Jones, and now finally, they could celebrate their captain's wedding. Rum it was, then. Rum, songs, and laughter.

x x x x x x x x

„Jack?"  
„Hmmm?"  
„Would you really have shot me?"  
Jack rolled onto his stomach and shrugged, a sad expression on his face. „I almost have. Thanks to Gibbs, I haven't, and it's not for the lack of trying that I didn't suceed."  
„Maybe you wanted him to stop you… deep down"  
He raised one brow. „Are you never tired of trying to find the good man hidden in the pirate's soul?"  
"I have found him", Elizabeth said simply.  
"You have?"  
„Good enough for me, at last", she said with a laugh, and rolled on top of him.

When she looked at Jack, she saw the question in his eyes, but she smiled and kissed him, kissed him again and touched his forehead with hers. „I know you want to know. You have to. I will tell you. But not tonight."  
„Not tonight", Jack replied and they kissed again.

And then a silken cloud drifted before the moon, as if even she would grant them privacy to do what they had both so long longed for.

Or maybe, she just couldn't watch what Jack was doing to Elizabeth that night.

Or she to him.

Luckily, a whole ship of celebrating, drinking pirates makes a hell of a noise.


End file.
